Six powerhouses aim to extend winning streaks into round 3
The group stage of the EHF Champions League Women 2026/27 continues with eight high-intensity round 3 encounters this weekend, with the Match of the Week set to be played in group B, as Gloria Bistrita host Odense Håndbold on Sunday 20 September at 16:00 CEST.
We're playing against another strong Champions League team that reached the FINAL4. That's why we're the underdog again. In a game like this, we can really only win and we want to put on a better performance. That's our task now in these kinds of games — to get more out of the match and take more away from it.
After two victories at the start of the Champions League, we want to be at a high level in the third match, in Dortmund. Ee want to finish this first part of the Champions League with two more points and for the team to improve in all areas, because we still have room for that.
We have had two good matches where we have gained some great experiences. Once again, we are facing an opponent whose goal is to reach the FINAL4. We can therefore play the match with no pressure on our shoulders, knowing that we have nothing to lose. As always when we play at SR-Group Arena, we know that we can surprise teams that are considered stronger than us.
Although Sola haven’t picked up any points in the first two rounds, they played two very good games against two top teams. You can clearly see that they have improved, and we already had a tough time against them last season, so I’m expecting another very difficult match.
Esbjerg are one of the best teams in Europe, with world-class players, so we know it will be a tough challenge. But we have to stand together, fight for each other and believe in our game plan. Even if they put us under pressure, we need to stay true to our concept and trust our abilities. If we do that as a team, I believe we can give them a real fight.
Our expression is going to be important, as we need to be ready from the start. Away matches in the Champions League are always a bit tougher, so we also need to show up with a lot of strength in our defence.
We expect a very tough and competitive game against Brest, a team with experienced players who know how to play at the highest level. We have had a particularly demanding start to the season, so we know we will have to be fully focused and ready for another difficult challenge. With our new coach, we want to show a strong reaction, fight from the first minute to the last and give our maximum.
I think what’s really important for us is to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. You have the defence, the transition and the attack, and that’s what we really want to put together because that’s the key in handball.
We want to play good sequences and maintain that continuity, but for that, the players need to feel each other on the court. We don’t want to have just one player attacking while the others are watching. We want all six players to be involved all the time.
On Saturday, we face one of the toughest — if not the toughest — matches in the Champions League. We are hosting Metz, last season's winners; it is up to us to prepare as well as possible by Saturday, give our all, and try to secure a point or even two. In our last two matches, we’ve shown that we can compete against the best teams. We know their greatest strength: they maintain the same high pace for the full 60 minutes. We need to fight hard, minimise errors in attack, and transition back to defence quickly, while also preventing their fast breaks and secondary breaks.
The match against Podravka is an important one for us. We’ve always found it difficult to play there and impose our rhythm against the strong opposition that Podravka represents. It’s a match we’re approaching with the utmost seriousness, just a few days before the first break. Our record so far has been quite good, and we want to keep this positive momentum going.
It is always exciting to host an opponent as strong as Györ. They operate at an incredibly high level in every phase of the game. We need to perform at our best to keep up with them. The away match last weekend was a very positive experience for us. We are really pleased with how we played. Györ is obviously at a much higher level than Blomberg, but our performance was outstanding.
We are going to Storhamar to try to continue the trend that we are in now, where we are very satisfied with our defence. Now we play to a well-organised Norwegian team with a clear playbook and it's important that we prepare maximum, so we can continue on this winning path that started when we won Ferencváros in the Super Cup. We are really looking forward to make a good statement before we go on the national team break.
Blomberg-Lippe are a very good team. We have some good memories from facing them in the European League last season, so it will be exciting to play them again — this time in the Champions League. I hope and believe that we can get some points this Sunday. We will definitely give everything we have, together with our amazing fans in Spar Nord Boxen.
We want to learn from the mistakes we made in the opening games and make sure we do better in our first away game. At the same time, we want to carry the momentum from the Bundesliga into the Champions League. We know Nykøbing from last season, when we picked up a point there. They are a strong but equal opponent, and we want to finish these first weeks of the season on a positive note.
The Odense team has strengthened its squad with top-class players this season. They possess the quality needed to reach the FINAL4 this year. They arguably boast the best goalkeeping line-up in the Champions League, and the arrival of (Anna) Vyakhireva is a huge boost thanks to her experience and one-on-one ability. We want to put in a strong performance in front of our fans and fight for a good result, even though we know it will be a very tough challenge.
Gloria are a really physical team with some good individual players. We will come up against a strong team where we have to show some togetherness in the defence and shut them down. And then the main thing for us if we want the two points — running.
